Watch the New ‘Story of Stuff': ‘The Story of Electronics’

Today’s electronics are cheap to buy, relatively speaking. But they break quickly. They’re expensive if not impossible to fix. Even when they don’t break, they seem outdated soon after they’re out of that annoying, clamshell, sealed-tight packaging. The result is that consumers often feel like they need a new laptop, TV, or digital camera mere months after they bought a new one—which means more money out of consumer’s wallets, and more and more gadgets and electronics to toss atop the trash pile.